* PRASÑA-UPANISHAD FIRST QUESTION

[Anne Terri]

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads

p. 268 p. 269 p. 270 p. 271

PRASÑA-UPANISHAD

FIRST QUESTION I

Adoration to the Highest Self! Harih, Om!

1. Sukesas 1 Bhâradvâga 2, and Saivya Satyakâma, and Sauryâyanin 3 Gârgya, and Kausalya 4 Âsvalâyana, and Bhârgava Vaidarbhi 5, and Kabandhin Kâtyâyana, these were devoted to Brahman, firm in Brahman, seeking for the Highest Brahman. They thought that the venerable Pippalâda could tell them all that, and they therefore took fuel in their hands (like pupils), and approached him.

2. That Rishi said to them: 'Stay here a year longer, with penance, abstinence, and faith; then you may ask questions according to your pleasure, and if we know them, we shall tell you all.'

3. Then 6 Kabandhin Kâtyâyana approached him and asked: 'Sir, from whence may these creatures be born?'

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4. He replied: 'Pragâpati (the lord of creatures) was desirous of creatures (pragâh). He performed penance' 1, and having performed penance, he produces a pair, matter (rayi) and spirit (prâna), thinking that they together should produce creatures for him in many ways.

5 2. The sun is spirit, matter is the moon. All this, what has body and what has no body, is matter, and therefore body indeed is matter.

6. Now Âditya, the sun, when he rises, goes toward the East, and thus receives the Eastern spirits into his rays. And when he illuminates the South, the West, the North, the Zenith, the Nadir, the intermediate quarters, and everything, he thus receives all spirits into his rays.

7. Thus he rises, as Vaisvânara, (belonging to all men,) assuming all forms, as spirit, as fire. This has been said in the following verse:

8 3. (They knew) him who assumes all forms, the golden 4, who knows all things, who ascends highest, alone in his splendour, and warms us; the thousand-rayed, who abides in a hundred places, the spirit of all creatures, the Sun, rises.

9. The year indeed is Pragâpati, and there are two paths thereof, the Southern and the Northern. Now those who here believe in sacrifices and pious gifts as work done, gain the moon only as their

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[paragraph continues] (future) world, and return again. Therefore the Rishis who desire offspring, go to the South, and that path of the Fathers is matter (rayi).

10. But those who have sought the Self by penance, abstinence, faith, and knowledge, gain by the Northern path Âditya, the sun. This is the home of the spirits, the immortal, free from danger, the highest. From thence they do not return, for it is the end. Thus says the Sloka 1:

11. Some call him the father with five feet (the five seasons), and with twelve shapes (the twelve months), the giver of rain in the highest half of heaven; others again say that the sage is placed in the lower half, in the chariot 2 with seven wheels and six spokes.

12. The month is Pragâpati; its dark half is matter, its bright half spirit. Therefore some Rishis perform sacrifice in the bright half, others in the other half.

13. Day and Night 3 are Pragâpati; its day is spirit, its night matter. Those who unite in love by day waste their spirit, but to unite in love by night is right.

14. Food is Pragâpati. Hence proceeds seed, and from it these creatures are born.

15. Those therefore who observe this rule of Pragâpati (as laid down in § 13), produce a pair, and to them belongs this Brahma-world here 4. But

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those in whom dwell penance, abstinence, and truth,

16. To them belongs that pure Brahma-world, to them, namely, in whom there is nothing crooked, nothing false, and no guile.'

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Footnotes

271:1 Sukesas seems better than Sukesan, and he is so called in the sixth Prasña, in MS. Mill 74.

271:2 Bhâradvâga, Saivya, Gârgya, Âsvalâyana, Bhârgava, and Kâtyâyana are, according to Sa?kara, names of gotras or families.

271:3 Sûryasyâpatyam Sauryah, tadapatyam Sauryâyanih. Dîrghah sulopas ka khândasa iti sa eva Sauryâyanî.

271:4 Kausalyo nâmatah, kosalâyâm bhavo vâ.

271:5 Vaidarbhi is explained as vidarbheh prabhavah, or Vidarbheshu prabhavah. Vidarbha, a country, south of the Vindhya mountains, with Kundina as its capital. Vaidarbha, a king of the Vidarbhas, is mentioned in the Ait. Brâhm. VII, 34. Vaidarbhi is a patronymic of Vidarbha. See B. R. s. v.

271:6 After the year was over.

272:1 Or he meditated; see Upanishads, vol. i, p. 238, n. 3.

272:2 Sa?kara explains, or rather obscures, this by saying that the sun is breath, or the eater, or Agni, while matter is the food, namely, Soma.

272:3 Cf. Maitr. Up. VI, 8.

272:4 Harinam is explained as rasmimantam, or as harati sarveshâm prâninâm âyûmshi bhaumân vâ rasân iti harinah. I prefer to take it in the sense of yellow, or golden.

273:1 Rig-veda I, 164, 12. We ought to read upare vikakshanam.

273:2 Saptakakre, i.e. rathe. The seven wheels are explained as the rays or horses of the sun; or as half-years, seasons, months, half-months, days, nights, and muhûrtas.

273:3 Taken as one, as a Nychthemeron.

273:4 In the moon, reached by the path of the Fathers.

Vol. XV THE UPANISHADS - PART II - Prasña Upanishad


(SEBO1)Translated by F. Max Müller - 1879
God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - The Upanishads
This text is in the public domain because it was published prior to 1923